A similar method has been tried, we know, to extract the poison of serpents; and it is not unusual to split a fowl and immerse the wound of a person bitten by a rattle-snake, in the warm entrails; but we remember to have seen the practice tried on a human subject in the south of Ireland. A gentleman who had made a large fortune in the East Indies, returned home

with a constitution broken by the climate; and after labouring for some time under its effects, it was given out that he died rather suddenly. It was said that he suffered from poison administered to him in his illness, and

some of his oriental attendants advised that he should be immersed in the warm entrails of an animal newly killed. A camel could not be had, so they killed a cow, and the body was actually laid in the open belly. The man certainly recovered after the experiment, and we remember to have seen him walking about after it had been reported he was dead and buried. Among the miscellaneous matter recorded in the course of their journey, is some that is interesting as the most recent news of events not well understood as yet in Europe. Among these was the approach of the Egyptian army which crossed the path they were then travelling. We have heard it assigned as one reason why the army made so rapid and decided a progress was, that the Greek landholders were disgusted and disaffected to the sultan. The principal of these was Cara Osmyn Oglow, who is long known as the most extensive territorial proprie tor in Turkey in Asia, and whose good deeds, particularly his attention to the comforts of travellers, are the theme of many a traveller's panegyric. He was reported to have favored the progress of the Egyptians with all his influence. We have had occasion to combat this opinion in a former number, and we now add Mr. Arundell's account to confirm what we said :

"Kutoieh was for a long time the head quarters both of Tamarlane and Ibrahim Pasha. It was here the latter erected a tribunal for reforming the abuses of the sultan's government. The sultan's officers were displaced and his own appointed in their room. At Smyrna the Egyptian rule was of very short duration. The moment the news reached Constantinople, orders were sent to strike

all the consular flags, a measure immediately followed by the restoration of the former governors, and the flight of the other to the camp of Kutoieh.

"Cara Osmyn Oglow, though obliged to fly from his government of Gozel so fortunate as Hiscar, was to escape with his life, though he suffered severely in his estates, from the excessive exactions of Ibrahim. His uncle, the musselim of

Magnesia, and his venerable preceptor,

the Aga of Cassaba, were not so fortunate, both being thrown into prison, and charged with being accessary to the deposition of Ibrahim's government at Smyrna. A large sum of money was fixed by Ibrahim as the penalty for their offence, and given to the aga of Cassaba as a commutation of the sentence of death. It was in vain for the unfortunate man to protest either his innocence or his inability to raise the required sum. He engaged to pay it, on the solemn assurance that his life should be spared.

"The time allowed for raising it was so short that it seemed almost impossible; yet so great was the interest his hard case excited, that the whole sum was promptly procured-a merchant of Smyrna, known to the writer, furnishing a proportion of it, amounting to 40,000 piasters. The money was ready and paid before the time stipulated-the bags were unsealed, the mahomoudies and dollars counted, declared to be right in amount, a receipt given, and instantly after, the body of the venerable old man, strangled by order of the governor of Magnesia, was thrown into the streets of Cassaba."

These were the invaders who were said to be received with open arms by the subjects of the sultan, from their hatred of his cruelty and oppressions, and their love of the humanity and Justice of his enemies.

Geoghegan's Greek Testament. Dublin. W. Curry & Co. 1834.

ANY work intended to facilitate the acquirement of Biblical knowledge is, from its design, if properly executed, eminently calculated to be useful. The work before us contains the five historical books of the New Testament, illustrated and explained by a very full and, in general, a very satisfactory body of critical and philological notes.

The editor represents his labours as designed only to assist the junior classes of students; but we by no means form the same estimate of

their utility. There are very few readers of the Greek Testament, who will not derive much valuable instruction from Mr. Geoghegan's comments. We have been particularly pleased with the introductions prefixed to each book, in which there is presented to the reader, in a compendious shape, a condensation of the results of historical research, on points very necessary to a full understanding of the sacred writers. We are sure that the work will be found a very valuable aid to those who are preparing for the examination-the very strict examination that precedes admission into holy orders.

Mr. Geoghegan has, however, fallen into an error, which perhaps in the execution of such a task, it was very difficult to avoid-an error to which we feel ourselves the more bound to notice, because it is not by any means confined to the writings of the Biblical critic, but has also become too common in the pulpit. We mean the practice of explaining, or, to speak more properly, getting rid of difficulties, by suggesting new and ingenious interpretations for the passage in the original. With regard to classical commentaries in general we believe that the very fact of an interpretation being ingenious, is primâ facie evidence against it; and, in the sacred writings, we always look with suspicion on any, even the slightest departure from the authorized version a version which should by no means be brought, however remotely, into disrepute, upon light or trivial grounds, as it is the only version in the hands of the unlearned: it is wrong to diminish, by groundless alterations, their confidence in its correctness. The authorized version is, besides, the most faultless translation that has ever been performed; and though many ingenious commentators have exercised their skill in endeavouring to amend it, we have never been fortunate enough to meet with a proposed alteration, which would have been an improvement. Take one of Mr. Geoghegan's, for instance. His note on the word duidμovosgous in the 22nd verse of the 17th chapter of Acts, is as follows: "This word is sometimes taken in a good sense, and sometimes in a bad one. The context and the circumstances require that we take it in the former, i. e. more

than others, attentive to religious matters; as Schleusner explains it, adding that Paul would of course use a word which could not irritate the Athenian mind; and that so he judged this fittest for that purpose, and yet to convey a tacit reproof of their superstition." Now, the fact is, that the word "superstitious," by which our translators have rendered dudasgous is perfectly correct. St. Paul had perceived

but one solitary altar dedicated to the supreme Spirit of the Universe, while innumerable shrines arose every where around to those false deities, those davis whom the folly of paganism had placed between the Father of the world, and the adoration of his creatures. And the word conveys a rebuke to that childest folly, which had created these imaginary demigods, while the Apostle subsequently offers to explain to his hearers the nature of that mysterious being, whom they now worshipped in ignorance. Superstition" is, perhaps, the only single word in our language, that would give the force of the original-superstition literally implies that slavish fear which casts down the human mind in prostrate subjection to imaginary terror; whether it be the fear of the hobgoblin of modern ignorance; or of the more poetic Demon the Neptune or the Mercury of the mythology of the Greeks.

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This however, although it be an error, does not interfere with the usefulness of Mr. Geoghegan's book— a book which we heartily recommend as one of the most useful that has for some time issued from the press. Our observations, indeed, on the practice to which we have alluded, have not been so much directed against the few instances of it which occur in the volume before us, where it is comparatively, if not altogether, innoxious, as against the introduction of it into the pulpit, where we have heard crude and at best unnecessary emendations of the authorized version of the Holy Scriptures, proposed by men whom, as ministers, we cannot but respect. But surely before a general congregation, all such displays of erudite ingenuity, may indeed shew off the critical acumen of the preacher, but can only tend to unsettle the minds, if not disturb the faith of those among their hearers, whose want of classical knowledge obliges them to take the authorized version upon trust.